The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Vahe H. Apelian

 I admit that I borrowed the title of this blog from Stepan Piligan’s latest column in the Armenian Weekly. He titled it similarly but with a caveat, extolling us to be reflective and ask ourselves, “Are we Ready?” The light at the end of the tunnel, Stepan claims, is becoming distantly visible and we seem to be getting ready to leave the cocoon we have been in for almost a year now. In this year-long dreaded lockdown, we sheltered ourselves from an enemy we cannot see, detect as it  lurks all around us and threatens our well being as a person,  family, as extended relations, and as a community at large. That enemy’s name is Covid-19. We still seem not to have conquered the enemy as we should.

I urge readers to read Stepan’s weekly column because Stepan has taken a hiatus from his customary theme that had rightly and mostly occupied his mind, the state of Armenia. In this column he dwells on another aspect of our collective being as Armenians. His latest article pertains, shall we say, the Armenian community East of the Mississippi River in the U.S.A whose capital city remains in my mind, the Greater Boston. I do not mean of course to imply that he neglects the rest of the community.

Greater Boston played a crucial role in shaping the history of the United States of America, which has been hosting our countrymen well before the genocide. If we were to point to an epicenter where the Armenian American community coalesced at one time and sprang from it, it will be Greater Boston in the great State of Massachussets. It is where (Worcester) the Encyclical Order of the Khrimian Hayrig came and established the Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church.  The longest running Armenian newspaper Hairenik continues to be published in Watertown, in Greater Boston. The first Armenian Evangelical Church was established, first as a body and then as a sanctuary. The oldest Armenian Church still in use in the U.S. is .the Armenian Church of the Martyrs was built in 1901 and was dedicated to the memory of the Armenian martyrs of the dreaded Hamidian Massacres but surely embodies the Genocide martyrs as well. The Armenian Missionary Association of America and the first Armenian Evangelical Union (of North America) were founded in that church in Worcester, in  greater Boston area.

The reason I borrowed his title is because today I received the Armenian Youth Federation Eastern U.S.A. Region’s 2020 Commemorative AYF Olympics booklet. The 87th AYF Olympics was to take place in Worcester, MA. The last time the community hosted the games was in 1974. The first hosting in Worcester was the 20^th AYF Olympics in  1953. It is noted that it was a historic event in the annals of the AYF Olympics history. A six men team led by high scorer Andy Dadigian, the booklet claims, put an end to the dominance of the AYF Providence athletes and snatched victories from them. For very well known reasons the community who had embarked preparing the hosting of the game long before 2020, could not host the event. There is quite a bit of AYF Olympics history in the booklet for those interested to read.

Surely, the year 2020 was a tumultuous year. We went through a hotly contested presidential election and elected the 46th President of the United States, Joe Biden. And on November 10, 2020 we woke up to the bitter reality of the 44 days long second Artsakh war we lost and experienced the capitulation of Armenia and having its PM Pachinyan sign the dictates of a cease fire agreement brokered by Russia. 

Let us face it. Let us sit crooked and speaking straight, as the Armenian saying goes, these two events very much reflected on our personal relationships with friends, relatives and even family members. As we brave the winter of 2021 and wait for the spring, we, as a community, are fragmented far more than we have been in our recent history. Our youth, those who make up the AYF, born after Armenia declared its independence on September 21, 1991 became the Armenian generation that experiencing the best recent Armenian history had offered us. Regretfully their experience was bitterly shattered. Stepan Piligian rightfully asks, “Are We Ready?” Naturally our experiences during 2020 will shape our perceptions and dealings with each other not only in 2021 but most likely for a long time. 

Much is and can be at stake in and for our communities if we are not vigilant and do not channel our sentiments properly for the greater good of our community. I started this article referencing Stepan Piligian and I will end it quoting his concluding paragraph. “We must retain what adds value from our experiences over the last year (Note: 2020). I would encourage that this become a conscious effort as “reopening” planning commences. Let’s get to work; that light in the tunnel is the manifestation of our hope.”